The Infiltrator

by Robert Mazur

Robert Mazur spent five years undercover infiltrating the criminal hierarchy of Colombia’s drug cartels. The dirty bankers and businessmen he befriended knew him as Bob Musella, a wealthy, mob-connected big shot living the good life. Together they partied in expensive hotels, drank the world’s finest champagnes, drove Rolls-Royce convertibles and flew in private jets. But under Mazur’s designer suits and hidden away in his quality briefcase, recorders whirred quietly, capturing the damning evidence of their crimes. Then, at his own staged wedding, he led a dramatic takedown that shook the underworld. In the end, more than eighty men and women were charged worldwide. Operation C-Chase became one of the most successful undercover operations in the history of US law enforcement, and evidence gathered during the bust proved critical to the conviction of General Manuel Noriega.

The Infiltrator is the true story of how Mazur's undercover work helped bring down the unscrupulous bankers who manipulated complex international finance systems to serve drug lords - including Pablo Escobar and the infamous Medillin cartel - corrupt politicians, tax cheats and terrorists. It is a shocking chronicle of the rise and fall of perhaps the biggest and most intricate money-laundering operation of all time. And, at its heart, it’s a vivid portrait of an undercover life and the sacrifices it requires.

Filled with dangerous lies, near misses and harrowing escapes, The Infiltrator is as bracing and explosive as the greatest fiction thrillers - only it's all true.

Paperback

Published August 25, 2016

Reviews

[Hunter McTague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book about the cartels. Hate that we works for the irs.

[Barbara Burrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an account of true events, sadly: The selling of drugs, specifically cocaine and how the dirty money was (and still is) laundered through the U.S. banking system. Cocaine is an expensive drug and requires a lot of money to acquire it, therefore one can correctly assume that buying and using cocaine is a vice of mainly the wealthy (and generally the educated). Sad, very sad indeed. What was revealed by the end of the book, was that politicians and others holding important positions, were (and still are) involved. Page 339, Epilogue "The Aftermath:"

"Bob, do you know who the biggest money launderer is in the U.S.?"

"Who?" I shrugged, smiling.

"The Federal Reserve Bank. They are such hypocrites! They know that the Bank of the Republic in Bogota has a teller window known as the 'sinister window.' Under Columbian rule, any citizen who has huge piles of cash can come to that window and anonymously exchange their U.S. dollars for Columbian pesos-no questions asked. This causes the Central Bank to accumulate palletloads of U.S. dollars that are shipped to the Federal Reserve and credited to the account of the Bank of the Republic-again, no questions asked. The people at the Reserve aren't idiots. They see this river of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars being shipped to them from Columbia. They know what generates that cash. That's drug money that has been smuggled from the U.S. and Europe to Columbia. The Federal Reserve takes that because it's good economics for this country's banking system. The Americans' so-called War on Drugs, is a sham."

[Claudia Aj · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must if you like undercover crime true stories.